New Athens tops Meteors
Ruess, Kiefer keep Kaskaskia Division title hopes alive in 54-39 win

02-13-15
BY JACK BULLOCK
NEW ATHENS
- On their senior night, the New Athens Yellow Jackets rode the emotions of the pregame ceremonies right into a big run to open their home contest against rival Marissa-Coulterville.

It didn't hurt that the two top scorers on the night were part of the celebration.

Classmates Jimmy Keifer and Ryan Ruess put together solid efforts offensively in leading the team to a key win.

Coach Marc Derwort's club jumped out to a 10-0 lead and held off the Meteors 54-39 in an important Kaskaskia Division contest.

Kiefer helped the Yellow Jackets out early on with his inside play while Ruess shined on both ends of the floor as he picked up some key steals when New Athens needed them.

Ruess topped the scoring slate with 23-points while Kiefer added 12, including three consecutive baskets in the first quarter.

Ruess hit 10-of-12 shots from the field while Kiefer nailed 5-of-9.

When your two top dawgs hit 71.4 percent from the field, its going to be a pretty good evening.

At the end of the night, the Meteors just didn't have enough offensive punch to match the hosts.

Sophomore Kyle Smith scored over half of the M-C points, netting 23-points in the loss.

“The reality is that we're not capable of making big runs and if we give up 50-points or more, we're not going to win,” said Coach Wine. “If we can keep the score in the 40's we have a chance. When we beat them at our place (January 9) we beat them 32-30 without Kyle Smith. When we got down 10-nothing, we knew that was a big hill to climb, it is like most people being down 20-nothing.”

Statically speaking, the Yellow Jackets won every column.

New Athens controlled the rebounding totals, 24-7, and shot the ball extremely well.

The Yellow Jackets finished 20-of-33 overall (60.6 percent) and Coach Derwort saw his squad hold the Meteors to just 15-of-39 from the floor.

For Coach Scott Wine, his team got a stellar performance from Smith, 5-foot-6 backcourt specialist, who carried most of the load on this night.

However there were few bright spots past Smith as Marissa-Coulterville saw its mark drop to 6-3 in the league, 10-15 overall.

Losing their second leading scorer and top rebounder, 6-foot-2 junior Ryan Howie, to a knee injury in the first quarter didn't help the winning cause.

The Meteors got eight points from sophomore Tony Stoddard in the loss.

In the 10-0 run to begin the contest, it was the 6-foot-4 Kiefer who produced in close to the basket.

In fact he netted the first two New Athens baskets from the right blocks for a 4-0 advantage early.

Ruess canned a 3-pointer as did teammate and senior Dylan Toedte.

The Toedte bomb closed the run with 4:14 left in the frame.

Marissa-Coulterville's best run came immediately following that NA push.

Smith got it started with the first of his three 3-pointers on the night to trigger an 8-0 run.

But one of the scores proved costly for the team as Howie hit a shot from the right wing but came down to the floor awkwardly and hurt his left knee.

He was helped off of the court by his teammates with 2:58 left in the quarter.

Stoddard closed the run with a 3-pointer which crept the club back into the game at 10-8.

However Kiefer scored again on the same spot on the floor as he did the previous two times and 1-of-2 free throws by senior Travis Zapfe made it 13-8 at the end of one.

“We had trouble with their size and in the first quarter they kept feeding it to Kiefer and Ruess was beating us baseline but I don't think it was a lack of effort but we just have a hard time scoring the ball,” added Coach Wine. “We are averaging about 30 percent from the floor this year. We try to defend hard and take some things away but we have a hard time getting the basketball in the bucket.”

New Athens scored the first six points of the second quarter.

Senior Drew Ragland, a 6-foot-3 forward, hit a pair of free throws followed by a back door cut to the basket by Ruess.

A baseline drive by Zapfe forced a Marissa-Coulterville time out at 19-8 with 6:05 left before intermission.

The two teams managed to trade scores the rest of the quarter as neither club seemed able to stop the other.

The Yellow Jackets were 7-of-9 from the floor in the second quarter with Ruess adding eight more points to his total.

Kiefer and Ruess each scored to close out the half at 30-21.

“We talked about the effort. We wanted an effort for 32-minutes. And that has been a bit suspect as of late. But tonight I thought we did a really nice job getting on the boards and we kept them off of the boards. They didn't many second chances. I thought we guarded him (Smith) well but he hit some tough shots,” added Coach Derwort. “That was one of the big things, we didn't want to put him on the line because we know what kind of scorer he is.”

Smith did his best to keep the Meteors afloat by matching Ruess with eight points in the stanza with three of his baskets coming on drives in the lane.

The Yellow Jackets had opportunities from the foul line to put away Marissa-Coulterville in the third quarter but they missed three free throws and committed five of their nine turnovers in that eight minute stretch.

Unfortunately for the visitors, they didn't do enough with the third quarter possibility.

Smith continued to carry the scoring burden, converting a conventional three point play while being fouled by senior Luke Mueller.

His made free throw dropped the deficit to just 33-25 at the 4:32 mark.

“They (Marissa-Coulterville) are not an easy team to play against. They do a really nice job of dictating the pace of the game. They have a tremendous scorer in Kyle Smith,” said Coach Derwort. “But I thought we did a good job getting the ball to the people who can score.”

New Athens, on the other hand, made good use of its offensive sets as they got a pair of back-door scores by Ruess.

He took separate assists on the two scores from Zapfe and Ragland, the second of which forced another M-C TO at 39-27 with 2:27 showing on the clock.

The Meteors closed the third quarter with a pair of buckets by guard Anthony Mixon and Smith.

The Smith score came on a fall away 3-point bomb from the left wing in front of the Meteors bench that beat the buzzer as Coach Wine's team was down just 39-32.

For Marissa-Coulterville, the run that they needed to get back into contention never came to fruition.

New Athens picked up the victory by keeping the run from happening.

Ruess hit a pair of free throws and then picked up a key steal and fast break lay in for a 49-37 lead.

The Yellow Jackets cashed in 5-of-6 foul shots to close out the senior night triumph.

While New Athens was effective on the offensive end, Marissa-Coulterville finished just 15-of-39 overall (38.4 percent) and the rebounding was non-existent.

The Meteors matched the Yellow Jackets with nine turnovers.

With the win, New Athens pulled into a tie with Steeleville at the top of the Kaskaskia Division standings at 7-2 while evening their overall mark at 13-13.

The Jackets and Warriors will lace it up next Friday at Steeleville to decide the league championship.

New Athens' next contest is at Red Bud on Tuesday.

The Meteors head back to action next Friday at Valmeyer.

“We've got some big bodies down there and it is no secret that we have to play that way (getting the ball inside) to be efficient. We have to establish our post position and I thought we did a nice job of that tonight,” added Coach Derwort. “We have a big one next week at Steeleville and that (playing there) is never easy.”

1
2
3
4
-
F
Marissa-Coulterville
08
13
11
07
-
39
New Athens
13
17
09
15
-
54

Marissa-Coultervillle (39)
– Mixon 2 0 0-0 4, Smith 5 3 4-5 23, Stoddard 1 2 0-0 8, Reuss 1 0 0-0 2, Dietrich 0 0 0-0 0, Howie 1 0 0-0 2, Greer 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-10, 3FG-5, FT-4-5, PF-17.

New Athens (54) – Mueller 0 0 4-5 4, Kiefer 5 0 2-4 12, Toedte 1 1 0-0 5, Hespen 0 0 0-0 0, Zapfe 1 0 1-2 3, Ragland 2 0 3-4 7, Ruess 9 1 2-6 23, Kosarek 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-18, 3FG-2, FT-12-21, PF-9.

Fouled Out – Mixon - Marissa-Coulterville.
Technical Fouls – None.